Huawei's Mate 50 smartphones are introduced by Eric Yu, head of the company's consumer business, at a press conference, September 6, 2022. /Huawei
Huawei released its latest flagship smartphone series, the Mate 50, on Tuesday.
The new phones are the first to support communications through China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), a GPS-like satellite network that covers the entire globe.
The phones are shipped with the Shenzhen-based company's latest self-developed operating system, the HarmonyOS 3, which provides a new emergency mode that can keep the phone standing by for an extra three hours with just one percent battery.
Multiple copies of a file will only occupy one file's space in the new phones' storage, according to Eric Yu, head of Huawei's consumer branch.
It's been nearly two years since the release of the last-generation Mate 40 series, which is unusually slow in the series' decade-long history.
Many believe Mate 50's release was delayed by U.S. government sanctions against the company, and the wait hyped up expectations
The base price for the new series remains unchanged from the Mate 40, which may come as a bummer for potential buyers. The new series is 4G-only and previous 4G Huawei phones are priced cheaper than their 5G equivalents.